


Kurenai - Purple Thread

by RoeDusk



Series: Tapestry - Prologue [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Mikoto's maiden aunt is terrifying, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 20:58:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoeDusk/pseuds/RoeDusk
Summary: After the Kyuubi attack Kurenai is taken in by the Uchiha Clan.





	Kurenai - Purple Thread

Kurenai remembers her mother as strong, her skills in high enough demand that she was never home for more than a few days. She’s not sure how anyone else remembers her, since she never got to meet her ANBU colleagues, but while her father was her confidant and caretaker her mother was her goal. Losing them both in one night was devastating, so she focused on living up to what her mother would have wanted rather than how suddenly she had to learn to do everything her father hadn’t quite finished teaching her.

Which meant becoming the best genjutsu mistress in Konoha, and a jounin. But her mother had had her parents to learn from, while Kurenai no longer had that. Where to even begin?

Mikoto approached her in the aftermath of the attack - bitter, grieving, and alone - and took her under her wing. The Uchiha remembered Nishi Yuhi as the Jounin Sensei of their Clan Head’s wife, and willingly shared what they knew of Yuhi’s style. And where others might have guarded clan secrets against her, Fugaku granted her permission to learn his family’s techniques.

Outside, in the rest of the village, “Uchiha Perogative” was jestingly used to mean the Uchiha would steal even allies’ jutsu without permission. Inside the compound walls, however, it meant she was allowed to ask about anything anyone used in front of her, and they should consider what might go wrong if she tried to teach herself before turning her away. A safety precaution she understood, given the drawbacks of the Sharingan, but not one she considered herself qualified for. Fugaku went selectively deaf when she asked him if anyone outside the Clan had ever been granted the Prerogative before, and Mikoto just told her not to worry about it.

Tradition was made to be broken anyway. Or at least disproven.

Mikoto talked her out of applying for ANBU early, convincing her to consider what _she_ wanted, rather than just what her mother had done. The tired look in her eye as she said it reminded Kurenai of the rumors about Itachi, already a Chunin and still so young, and she agreed to wait. Becoming a Jounin was enough of a goal for now, with extra training with Mikoto’s maiden aunt in between studies in genjutsu theory.

She went home every day to meditate and compile everything she’s learned and experienced that day, to try and figure out how the pieces went together the way an Uchiha would, so the lesson would stick longer and be more adaptable. Sometimes she dreamed in genjutsu, and woke with a brand new idea to try, already halfway completed by the time she tracked down any of her teachers to train. They told her she was well on her way to becoming an expert in her chosen field, and her weapons teacher had agreed to nominate her for Jounin if she could tag her in a duel.

Then one morning she woke up, half an idea already in her mind, and walked into a world without a single one of her teachers to talk to. Kurenai was turned away from the gate by ANBU, and directed to the Hokage for specifics once their investigation was completed. But the rumors told her what happened long before then.

She had become Konoha’s premiere Genjutsu Expert overnight, and lost the last few people she’d learned to care about.

So she got drunk for the first time in her life, cried all over a stranger, and woke up the next morning furious with the world and with a headache. She dug out every note and gift they had given her over the years, at least the ones she still had, and lit incense after drying her eyes.

She was Kurenai Yuhi, daughter of Konoha’s Genjutsu Mistress and the world’s best dad, and the inheritor of the Uchiha’s Prerogative. She would continue to train genjutsu until she had earned her place among Konoha’s best, and honored the legacy Mikoto and Fugaku had given her. And when Sasuke graduated the academy in 4 years he would need a teacher. She just had to become a Jounin before then.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?


End file.
